Let’s be serious. Nobody wakes up and decides to tell all their friends and family what a great place TOP’s Restaurant is! Marketers who want to take advantage of word-of-mouth communications need to take a more subtle approach. We take customers that arrive on personal recommendation but do little to cheer them to carry on the tradition of spreading the word. I have outlined few ideas you could use for stimulating your customers to recommend your service: Catchphrase - You can’t go wrong in asking customers who express satisfaction to tell their friends. They might be more inclined to do so if you ask them and it will surely do no harm. (more…)

The significance of data is that you can see behaviour change daily. If a trend emerges from analysis of your data, it is appropriate to review marketing strategy and assess the success or relevance of the plan under way. The data and the insight they provide become an extremely precious indicator of customer satisfaction. Data linked to loyalty programs becomes a rich source of market research. It is not what people say they do but what they actually do. Naturally, market research still has a valuable role, it is still required to determine why customers have changed but its use has become even more focused. By analysing your loyalty program data, you can recognize which of your customers visit frequently (and spend a lot) which ones visit infrequently (but still…

Customer retention programmes have historically had insufficient priority in most sectors, but then the forces affecting customer churn, and therefore the need for retention focus, have never been so great. The idea is not new. What is new is the approach. What is now being witnessed is a market increasingly commoditised and far more susceptible to competition - from other players and from new media. Customer knowledge and confidence have had a significant impact: it has become so much easier to compare and to swap products. Changing sales structures and wearing away of face-to-face interaction have helped to dilute or eradicate conventional 'loyalty'. What direction does this give the services marketer? It leads the way to a re-examination of profit drivers and a critical evaluation of current programmes. The business…

Customer retention is ultimately driven by value. Even the best segmentation, targeting, positioning, creative messaging or promotion with flawless execution will fall flat in the absence of value. In developing a plan to maintain and upgrade a customer base it is necessary then to build on solid foundation. Then, and only then will the steps unlock the door to greater customer retention and overall organizational success. To succeed, customer retention must be a top-down, company-wide initiative. Truly committing to customer retention is hard work, because it affects virtually every aspect of your organization. But the ultimate payback in sustainable growth and profitability makes the effort worthwhile. The path to customer retention involves six key steps. (more…)

Engagement marketing aims to engage people. It encourages them to participate in the evolution of a brand. Customer engagement and conversations are what marketing is all about. Rather than looking at consumers as passive receivers of messages, engagement marketers believe that consumers should be actively involved in the production and co-creation of marketing programs. Recently I read an interesting article "Brands fail to follow rules of engagement" in Marketing Week. I was always aware of engagement marketing but I needed to dig a bit deeper to write something about it. Engagement is a marketing approach that—in contrast to traditional brand and direct marketing strategies—allows a brand’s customers and prospects to shape the company’s marketing. People choose what messaging they will receive, and in what channels. Engagement marketing begins at the moment…

Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart nicely describes A Customer... A customer is the most important person in any business A customer is not dependent upon us. We are dependent upon him/her. A customer is not an interruption of our work. He/she is the sole purpose of it. A customer does us a favor when he comes in. We aren't doing him a favor by waiting on him/her. A customer is an essential part of our business--not an outsider. A customer is not just money in the cash register. He/she is a human being with feelings and deserves to be treated with respect. A customer is a person who comes to us with needs and wants. It is our job to fill them. A customer deserves the most courteous attention we can give him/her.…

To achieve better sales and profits, most companies could be doing more to cultivate business from their existing customers. However, enthusiasm for customer-retaining strategies must not endanger sound customer-getting efforts. How companies balance the two is the big question. To intensify reaching old customers while still seeking new ones, for many firms, will mean changes in market analysis, planning systems, management incentives, and marketing and/or operations organization. In the rush toward growth, consumer marketers have tended to regard success as stemming from obtaining new customers while unwittingly minimizing the importance of satisfying old ones. It is time for more companies to distinguish between their getting and retaining functions, to assess the balance between them, and to remedy any deficiencies in customer retention. This process requires management to value the potential…